Skip to content

Computers

PC vs Mac (Not Really)

In my latest flurry of gadget-buying, yesterday came the Canon mini-DVD camcorder. It wasn’t rashness on my part, but something I’d intended to get for quite a while. There are always things you wish you’d been able to film, and as Paul and I have one or two interviews planned (first one coming up early next month, no names mentioned just yet), it was a good time to grab it.

It’s a very nice piece of equipment. It has a widescreen option, which is pretty cool. My only (minor) disappointment is that there is no input for an external mike, which isn’t totally necessary but would’ve been a useful option to have. Great value for money overall, though.
Read More »PC vs Mac (Not Really)

Picture This

Well, second week as a Londonder has been… up and down.

On Monday, Paul and Mayko came over to watch X-Men 3. It was only upon her arrival that I discovered Mayko hadn’t seen the first two films! I think she enjoyed it okay anyway, though. She gave me as a gift some bonafide Japanese brush pens, which I look forward to experimenting with. (I haven’t done any drawing at all since the move… yet.)

Fred was his usual combo of cute and temperamental with the guests. We enjoyed a curry and some music before the film itself. A nice evening, though I wish the house was in a better state of organisation for entertaining guests. :-/
Read More »Picture This

Sommat to Chew On

Oh, more computer equipment out of commission: my scanner. This time it was the dog chewing clean through the mains adaptor wire that did it. This is why he’s on restricted access…

(It’s been ten years since I last went through fun stuff like this. I’d honestly forgotten the true extent of the joy it makes me feel.)
Read More »Sommat to Chew On

Back from the Dead

Well, as of yesterday, I’m back on a decent computer. I picked up a 120gb HD (rather than 160) from ebay, where it seems I go for almost everything these days. Quick delivery, brand new, well packaged, and within five minutes I had it fitted and Windows setup running.

I guess it’ll take a few days to get everything on here how I want it. But it’s nice to not be seeing the machine sitting around like an expensive ornament. And at least I learned how to fit a hard drive out of the experience. I’m sure that’ll come in handy on an almost daily basis. 🙂

It’s been a weird few weeks with that and having a dog around. The dog’s future here, it has to be said, is at present under consideration. Let’s just say he has a boisterous nature and a discipline problem… and mom, not being in the best of health, is finding it very difficult to cope (and with her angina, too much stress is a real no-no).
Read More »Back from the Dead

Flaming June, Huh? Where’s Bleeding Terry?

Oh, haven’t I been quiet. Here I am, disappointing an audience of thousands! The arrogance of celebrity is an awful thing!

The dog had his second jabs last week, so he’s allowed outdoors in seven days or so. The fact that we still have him is a minor miracle—mom’s found it particularly tough to cope with his antics. He needs proper exercise badly.

I’m still on the old computer. I tried formatting the hard drive last weekend as a last resort. It being so large, this took the better part of 24 hours, at the end of which I found the process had settled the issue permanently—chug chug chug on the bios screen ad infinitum, unable even to boot from floppy! It’s dead, Jim…
Read More »Flaming June, Huh? Where’s Bleeding Terry?

A Guarantee of Nothing

I did call about my computer on Monday. And… uh… the company we got it from has liquidated, and the takeover people aren’t honouring old warranties! What this means to me: (a) I will probably need, at some point, to pay for a new 160gb hard drive and either figure out how to fit it myself or pay someone to do it for me; (b) I’m stuck on my old computer for the time being.

Hey, I knew there’d be a good reason for not dumping this old thing on a nearby tip! 😉
Read More »A Guarantee of Nothing

Okay, So What Do I Do?

Speaking of all this design stuff… actually, I do have a serious problem. A problem that would make it hard for me to even do a new logo for this site, for instance.

The logo at the top of the page (at the time of writing!) was done in Photoshop 4.0 on my old computer. It was nothing fancy; two gradient fills stitched together, Black Chancery font stretched vertically a little bit, standard emboss filter. That’s as fancy as my logos get, anyway.

Then: new computer, not running Win98 but WinXP. It doesn’t like Photoshop 4.0. It hangs/exits very frequently on load and save of images. I’m sure this is due to the age of the software. So now I’m stuck with a thing called PhotoStudio (I think it came with my old scanner), which works fine but is frankly crap!
Read More »Okay, So What Do I Do?

No Letter From the Queen

Well, hey, I’m still here. No wrist-slashing antics during the night. I’m coping with being an old fart remarkably well. By my standards, that is.

And yes, this comes to you from a new computer, which came Tuesday. Last time I bought a new computer, almost two years ago, it was a second-hand piece of tat due to limited funds (my old old one blew up). So, okay, it’s only a computer… but it sure is nice to use compared to the creaky old brute I’ve been stuck with. 18″ TFT too—sexy! And I can burn CDs now. Of course, without a pack of CDs to play with, that isn’t much use. Today is shopping day, so that situation will be remedied shortly.
Read More »No Letter From the Queen